The Pain Continues...

The Q's finally came home for a match last night to take on Toronto FC. There was still talk about the chance to still sneak into the playoffs if we can string some wins together. We'll, after last night, sneaking into post season play may not be coming into the near future. The Quakes really stunk it up last night. They did have their few moments + a nice goal coming from the combination of Ryan Johnson and Hucks, but the defense just didn't... defend. Too many opportunities for Toronto and DeRo. It was really disheartening...it still feels like we have stepped backwards in time to our form at the beginning of our inaugural season last year. The only sure thing that I know is - I'm a Quakes supporter forever.

Non-Commercial Football Shirt Sponsorships

The shirt sponsorship that Barca has with Unicef is quite amazing in this day of bottom line profit. I was scanning the EPL website last week and saw that Aston Villa's shirt sponsor is Acorns - the children's hospice network in the UK. This brings me great pleasure as I am a volunteer at the George Mark Children's House in San Leandro, CA (http://www.georgemark.org/) The past couple of years, I had adopted Chelsea as my adopted EPL team, but after considering this contribution and the support Aston Villa is giving to Acorns, I am considering a switch in my EPL alliance. More later.

$30 parking, US player to AC Milan

I went to the 2009 Gold Cup opening round matches at the Oakland Coliseum on July 5th (Guadalupe beating Panama and then Mexico downing Nicaragua).  The crowd was pretty small for the first game.  Most were there for the Mexico game and stayed in the parking lot to party up until game time.  H and I came late so we decided to park in the Coliseum lot.  We almost had a heart attack when we saw that it was $30 just to park.  Dang - the tickets cost $30 each.  I don't think I have ever been to an event where the parking was just as much as the event ticket.  This world is screwy. 

Interesting things that we spotted in the parking lot: "Cage" 1v1 football, girls sponsored by beer companies taking pictures with guys in the crowd (H posed a few times!).  You'll have to ask him about one particular gal that had an expression that never changed!  Lots of food being cooked on BBQ's and little supporter bands marching all over the parking lot with their national flags.  Inside the MEX/NICAR fans were in a frenzy (90+% were Mexico supporters).  We almost had an international incident occur in the section next to us and we had one guy throwing up and going unconscious in our section (a little bit too much of the liquid refreshment I am guessing).  It is too bad - he missed a good match.

US MNT Defender Heading for AC Milan!

It was announced today that Oguchi Onyewu has been signed by AC Milan.  His impressive work in the Confederations Cup must have helped his cause.  I'm looking forward to see how ACM will use him - he is a powerful dude.

Enhancing Your Appreciation of the Beautiful Game

From several of my previous posts, you all know that I truly appreciate the game of football. I have recently discovered the most powerful way to solidify and make permanent one's romance with the beautiful game. Take some time to learn and play the game. Now I don't mean you have to go out and join a league for 11v11 games and a formal season. Being a total newbie (meaning NEVER EVER have I played the game), joining some formal football league was way too intimidating. H played football growing up and recently began playing again - in an indoor 5v5 league and in an infomral 4v4 outdoor program called SoccerFours in San Francisco.

H encouraged me to try SoccerFours and eventually I did. Before signing up (http://www.soccerfours.com/), I emailed the organizer of SoccerFours - Chris. I told him that I was a total novice who has never played the game and I was concerned how I would "fit in". Chris was totally encouraging. Now that I have played with them for 3 weeks, I have come to realize (1) How out of shape I am, (2) how Chris was right in terms of me being comfortable learning the game in the SoccerFours community, and (3) how much playing the game is really the only way to fully appreciate the players that I watch as a fan and what they can do on the pitch. Beyond the obvious things like passing, shooting, dribbling skills... just their endurance to play 90+ minutes on a full-size pitch just floors me. I am sure that this phenomenon is true for every sport (I don't think people fully appreciate the demands of golf until they actually try to play the game!).

So Close

I took in the 2009 Confederations Cup at Manny's in Berkeley (on Telegraph). The place was packed with hopes of witnessing the first U.S. FIFA cup of any kind. The teams energy from their upset over Spain continued into the first half of the final yesterday. Defense was shutting down everything. Howard was solid in goal. Dempsey scored the first goal in the 10''. Donovan scored the second goal in the 27''. The place was rockin' and we were all pinching ourselves. But alas, our opponent this day was mighty Brasil. Kaka'. Robinho. Brasil roared back in the second half. Their first goal by Fabiano (he ended up with 2 goals) seemed to pop the U.S. bubble and they began to remember they were playing Brasil. I sensed their high energy drop with every tentative step they were making. Fabiano scored one more and then Lucio scored Brasils third. The dream ended Brasil 3 USA 2. It was an exciting game to watch, but it was heartbreaking at the same time. The teams performance gives us greater hope for 2010 WC success.

2009 Gold Cup

With not much of a break, the US MNT will begin their 2009 Gold Cup defense. Manager Bob Bradley has already announced the roster for the Gold Cup. Only a handful of players that were on the Confederations Cup roster (Charlie Davies, Freddy Adu, Heath Pierce, and Luis Robles) will play in the Gold Cup. Only Davies saw any significant playing time in the Confederations Cup matches.

2009 Gold Cup Roster
No. Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Birthdate Hometown Club Caps/G

1 Perkins, Troy GK 6-2 190 07/20/81 Worthington, Ohio Valerenga IF (Norway) 1/0
2 Pearce, Heath D 5-10 175 08/13/84 Modesto, Calif. Hansa Rostock (Germany) 23/0
3 Goodson, Clarence D 6-4 170 05/17/82 Alexandria, Va. IK Start (Norway) 2/0
4 Marshall, Chad D 6-4 190 08/22/84 Riverside, Calif. Columbus Crew 4/1
5 Beckerman, Kyle M 5-10 165 04/23/82 Crofton, Md. Real Salt Lake 3/0
6 Cherundolo, Steve D 5-6 145 02/19/79 San Diego, Calif. Hannover 96 (Germany) 51/2
7 Rogers, Robbie M 5-10 165 05/12/87 Huntington Beach, Calif. Columbus Crew 1/0
8 Pause, Logan M 5-10 155 08/22/81 Hillsborough, N.C. Chicago Fire 0/0
9 Davies, Charlie F 5-10 160 06/25/86 Manchester, N.H. Hammarby IF (Sweden) 9/2
10 Holden, Stuart M 5-10 160 08/01/85 Houston, Texas Houston Dynamo 0/0
11 Ching, Brian F 6-1 195 05/24/78 Haleiwa, Hawaii Houston Dynamo 36/9
12 Conrad, Jimmy D 6-2 185 02/12/77 Temple City, Calif. Kansas City Wizards 24/1
13 Clark, Colin M 5-11 161 04/11/84 Ft. Collins, Colo. Colorado Rapids 0/0
14 Parkhurst, Michael D 5-11 155 01/24/84 Providence, R.I. FC Nordsjaelland (Denmark)5/0
15 Cronin, Sam M 5-10 165 12/12/86 Winston-Salem, N.C. Toronto FC 0/0
16 Heaps, Jay D 5-9 155 08/02/76 Longmeadow, Mass. New England Revolution 0/0
17 Cooper, Kenny F 6-3 210 10/21/84 Dallas, Texas FC Dallas 4/2
18 Robles, Luis GK 6-1 180 05/11/84 Fort Huachuca, Ariz. FC Kaiserslautern (Germany)0/0
19 Adu, Freddy F 5-8 140 06/02/89 Potomac, Md. AS Monaco (France) 13/1
20 Quaranta, Santino F 6-1 185 10/14/84 Baltimore, Md. D.C. United 11/0
21 Evans, Brad M 6-1 160 04/20/85 Phoenix, Ariz. Seattle Sounders 0/0
22 Arnaud, Davy M 6-0 165 06/22/80 Nederland, Texas Kansas City Wizards 2/0
23 Busch, Jon GK 5-10 165 08/18/76 Albany, N.Y. Chicago Fire 1/0

I'll be attending first round matches at the Oakland Coliseum on 7/5 (this coming Sunday): Panama vs. Guadalupe and Mexico vs. Nicaragua.

Shocked, Amazed, and THRILLED!

I am still trying to let it sink in that the US MNT has advanced to the Confederations Cup Final (vs Brasil). H and I watched the semifinal vs Spain at Marriott FC with several other patrons. As the clock kept moving and as the US lead started at 1-nil (Altidore) and than it later grew to 2-nil (Dempsey) - I didn't want to say a thing to jinx the boys. Beating the #1 team in the world who hadn't lost a match since late 2006...wow. Spain dominated the stat sheet - everything except for the scoreboard. The Americans played with huge hearts - it was so good to see how good they can be (especially compared to how they were playing in the earlier group stage). Congratualtions to the lads for eaching their first ever FIFA cup final! U.S.A! U.S.A! My MVP? Tim Howard.

International Football in the Bay Area this Summer + Soccer Fours!

2009 Gold Cup: I have my tickets for the first round matches that will be played at the Oakland Coliseum on July 5th (Guadeloupe vs Panama and Mexico vs Nicaragua)

Int'l Friendly August 8th: Today - I just secured tickets to the FC Barcelona vs Club Deportivo Guadalajara (a double header with the first game being the Q's vs the Columbus Crew).

I decided to pass on the World Football Challenge match between Inter and Club America (at Stanford Stadium). It would have been fun to do this one too - but $ is scarce and choices had to be made. Now if it were AC Milan or Chelsea.....

Soccer Fours:

Well - with the encouragement of H, I have finally stepped onto the pitch myself by starting to participate in a 4v4 program called Soccer Fours. They pick-up 4v4 games are on Wednesday nights at Franklin Sq Park in San Francisco. No refs, no score keeping, no league of official teams. It involves mostly club players, but even a novice like me felt welcome to join in. My legs were sore and I was definitely sucking wind during the 1 hour session that consisted of six 10-minute games. Check it out at http://www.soccerfours.com/

Franklin Sq Park pitch (artificial turf)

US MNT Celebrates on Father's Day!

It didn't look like there was any chance for the U.S. Men's National team to advance in the Confederations Cup. Their play has been awful and were taken apart by both Italy and Brasil. The only was they could make it was to win by several goals in their final group stage match against Egypt and they needed Brasil to score several goals over Italy for the U.S. to advance by goal differential. Everyone including me thought there was a chance to beat Egypt, but there was no way we would advance.

A miracle happened today. Brasil took apart Italy 3-nil and the U.S. beat Egypt 3-nil. Brasil won the group and there was a 3-way tie between Egypt, Italy, and the U.S. (3 points each). The U.S. advance to the semis by goal differential by the smallest margin. It is great for the lads to move on (they play Spain next on Wednesday), but it will be difficult to move farther. They can be thankful that we will have 2 games left to hone their game (semifinal match + 3rd place match for the losers in the semis). I did see a different team today on the pitch - although I think Egypt was beginning to run out of gas after their battles with Brasil and Italy.